Five Christmases spent on duty on the Destiny
by Shenandoah Risu
Summary: When you're stranded on an Ancient spaceship billions of miles from Earth you don't ever really get a day off. Not even Christmas. ESPECIALLY not Christmas.


**Title: Five Christmases spent on duty on the Destiny  
** **Author: Shenandoah Risu  
** **Rating**: PG-13  
**Content Flags**: vomit, coal, books, booze, and adventures in plumbing  
**Spoilers**: vague ones for "Sabotage"  
**Characters**: Vanessa James, Dale Volker, Chloe Armstrong, Lisa Park, Ronald Greer, Adam Brody, Eli Wallace, Airman Dunning  
**Word Count**: 536  
**Summary**: _"You're officially the hardest-working guy on this ship."_  
**Author's Notes**: Written for a prompt in set #139 at the LJ Comm sg1_five_things  
**Disclaimer**: I don't own SGU. I wouldn't know what to do with it. Now, Young... Young I'd know what to do with. ;-)  
**Thanks for reading! Feedback = Love. ;-)**

**oOo**

**Five Christmases spent on duty on the Destiny **

"First Christmas here I spent worshipping the porcelain god, in between weapons inventory and gun maintenance," Vanessa reminisces, as she digs in for another helping of fresh greens.

"Where did you find a real toilet on this tub?"

"Speaking in metaphor, Volker. I don't even remember why. I must have eaten something that didn't agree with me. I just remember hurling and someone – I think it was Eli – saying that wasn't the kind of 'Ho-Ho-Ho' I was supposed to say today."

"Camile's purple sweet potato pie?"

"Maybe. Although I really like Camile's pie. I think it might have been the smoothies Becker tried out that day. What about you, Volker?"

"Oh, I was slaving away on the Bridge, Rush breathing down my neck and Chloe – yes, you – telling me all my calculations were wrong."

"Did not."

"Did too! You and Lisa ganged up on me about it, too."

"Dale, they really were wrong. You forgot the carry the seven in one of the additions, I remember exactly," Lisa pipes up.

"Anyway, the stocking stuffers? Yeah. You got a lump of coal from me, both of you."

"That was coal?" Chloe laughs out loud. "And I thought, well, darn tootin', someone gave me a chunk of naquada. Thanks, Dale. Hey Lisa? What did you do?"

"I was… ummm… busy. Reading. Ow!" Lisa jumps as Ronald pinches her playfully.

"And then I went on patrol with Ronald here because he was too chicken to go all by himself on Christmas Day."

"I was on duty, goddess."

"Duty, shmuty. Anyway, I learned how to do a proper patrol, and sneaking around corridors and checking rooms according to protocol… and yeah, it was fun, actually. And then we went to Brody's new and improved still and got hammered."

"Oh, don't remind me," Brody groans. "That effing thing kept breaking down!"

"Ha ha – I remember! You spent the whooooole day welding it back together."

"Shut up, Eli."

"Does this even qualify as 'on duty'?"

"It damn well does. Anyway, that's when I decided to build the automated still and hooking it into the electrical system. Bingo! - Oh, hey Dunning! We were just discussing what we were doing on the first Christmas here on Destiny. Seems like all of us were on duty. How about you?"

Dunning grimaces. "I remember fixing the damn toilet in the women's bathroom several times 'cause someone threw up in there a lot. And then Rush broke the one near the Apple Core."

"That was Rush?"

"Well, he denied it, of course, but I have my sources."

Chloe pales. "You bugged the Apple Core toilet?"

"No, of course not. Who'd wanna see that feed, seriously?" Dunning huffs in indignation. "And then the showers quit working, and the kitchen ran out of water, and there was a leak in the engine room, and the water tanks had alarms going off for no reason and…"

Eli claps him on the shoulder.

"It's okay, man. You're officially the hardest-working guy on this ship. A toast to Airman Dunning!"

"Dunning rocks!"

"Thanks, guys. Now, whoever was behind the prank with the purple sweet potato juice in the shower – _YOU_ go clean it up."

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**_Thanks for reading! A comment or feedback would be very much appreciated._**** :)**

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